On my daily driver - a Honda Civic EM2 Coupe, I am loosing radiator coolant and it's going really foamy, like bubble bath foamy, a good 3-4 inches of foam in the expansion bottle.

The oil looks fine and the foam is a clean white, just wondering if this is normal (normal for a blown head gasket) or is it possibly because I refilled it with a screen wash bottle that might not have been completely rinsed out and that's what's causing the foaming.

[Edited on 26/1/14 by Scuzzle]

SCREEN WASH!!!

that isnt a head gasket issue. screen wash takes ages to get rid of, i advise dropping the bottom radiator hose off and sticking a hose in the system for 30 minutes to try and wash all the coolant out thoroughly them refill with water and correct amount of anti freeze

I didn't exactly fill it with screen wash, I just used an empty screen wash bottle to top it up with that had a tiny amount in the bottom of it which I never imagined for a moment would cause any issues, it's foaming up really badly and the water level is dropping.

It's the screen wash residue
At least its a cheaper fix than a head gasket
No gasket failure I have seen caused froth like that
One bottle of Fairy liquid in hundreds of litres of water in Romford shopping centre fountain caused the whole square to fill with foam
Just the residue from one bottle of screen wash which is the heated and shoved through a water pump will cause mayhem

I do agree with the screenwash assessment, however that wouldn't necessarily cause the level to drop. Certainly flush it out as that is the cheapest option first. But expect something else to show up, maybe a loose/cracked pipe or similar. I don't think it's a head gasket issue.

my wife once accidentally put car shampoo in the screen wash bottle... every time she squirted the windows loads of bubbles would shoot out! hehe

I would drain out the cooling system, flush it with a cooling system flushing product according to
instructions and refill with proper antifreeze solution. Just to be sure that any lubrication/anti-corrosion
properties of the coolant are maintained.

Could still have possible head gasket blown, as 1 symptom is bubbles of exhaust gas appearing in the header tank coolant thought not foam but if youve got some screenwash in it the bubbles would probably cause the foam.

One way to test is with a tester kit that checks the coolant for exhaust gases.

You could also try a compression check on all cylinders to see if they are all in spec or if one is low.

The best way to check for head gasket failure is to use a exhaust gas analyser to sniff inside the header tank and check for hydrocarbons.
Much quicker than using any other methods.

Thanks for the replies, everything just smells of hot coolant, I will try flushing the system and refilling it with the correct antifreeze mix and see how it goes. I would not have believed how a dribble of screen wash could do this, if I;d known I would have rinsed the bottle out thoroughly.